REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
r o n, i: t
COPY
">FFICZ OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
INTEROFFICE i-EMO
"TO: Major John McDonough DATE: DECEMBER 3, 1943
From: Henry Field
Subject: Biographical Sketches of Hitler and Himmler
In accordance with your request I have given to Kiss Page the
biographical rketc'-ec rl Hitler and Himnler for copying in
your office. )
Since 7. oin partly responsible for the security involved I must
soil attention to the Special rwintc-nence of secrecy.
H. F.
r
fr - E - C P.ET ^ C 0 LPT
NOTE:
>-Semo copy above is from KID/AR file folder on ADOLF HITLSR
.filed under WASH X-2 FERSONALIT IES #13 '. the folder contains
1 copy of a 28-page report on HeAnrich Himmler in addition to
the 6ft-page paper on Hitler of which the attached copy is an
extra one extracted for inclusion, with memo above, in the
Hitler 201 file (if not already duplicated therein): 201-93533
R3D/SP/AN (5Jun6l)
f-Ti WAR CRIMES DISCLOSURE ACT* ^
2000 -7, , . 1 i I "~ •
CIA SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
tttt) C - OOOO IX RELEASE IN FULL
REPRODUCED OT THE NWIONAL ARCHIVES
-SEBfttr
ADOLF HITLER
December 3» 1942
.vl WAR CRIMES DISCLOSURE ACT
2000
•FECIAL COLLECTIONS
ivELEASE IN FULL
Declassified by -----------
date
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
—2 —
CONTEXTS
Pages
BACKGROUND . .. .. 4-6
Family ... 4-6
EDUCATION i.. 6-11
Writing 6-7
Reading .'...«. 7-9
Concentration 9-10
Noise . 9
Silence i... 10
Conversation 10- 11
Debate... • 11
PHYSIQUE 11^ 16
Personal Appearance 11- 12
Cleanliness 12
Endurance . . . 12
Exercise 12- 13
Sight 13- 14
Voice........ 14- 15
Sleep....... 15
React ions.. .............. 15- 16
DIET 16- 19
Food 16- 18
DrinB:. 18
Smoking 18- 19
-SEGfiEF —
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PERSONAL PROTECTION ... 19 - 2 1
ENTERTAINMENT 21 - 24
Music. . 21 - 23
Dane lag. 23
Theatre. 24
Vaudeville * . 24
Circus........ ...V. 24
INFORMATION 25 - 26
News . ... . 25
Radio .'• 25
Movies ■ 25 - 26
RELIGION 26 - 27
METAMORPHOSIS IN LANDSBERG 27-29
SEZEAL LIFE. • 29 - 40
The Vienna Period 29 - 30
r
Analysis... . 30 - 36
■
Criticism 36 - 40
SELF- IDENTIFICATION PATTERNS 40-56
Introduction 40 - 42
Hitler and Messiah..... 42 - 45
Hitler and Cromwell 46
Hitler and Frederick the Great 46 - 46
Hitler and Bluecher 48 - 49
Hitler and Napoleon ' 49 - 56
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SPEECH-M/LKING- TECHNIQUE 57 ~ 68
Preparation or Speech 57 " 59
59
Entrance
59-60
Interruptions
60
Speech •
60-62
Posture
Oratory ••
End of Speech
Avoidance of Names and Personages.
Exit Technique. . • ■
62 - 66
66
67
67 - 68
SECRET"
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- rfcoufci — ■ ■
BACKGROUND
family. - A glance at Hitler* s family tree reveals the
fact of almost incestuous breeding. Hitler's mother i&ara Poelz
according to Mrs. Brigid Hitler (mother of Patrick Hitler) had
Czech blood, besides being a blood relation of her husband, Aloi
Sohiokelgruber, subsequently legitimized to Hitler.
Hitler's father was twenty-three years older than his
" wife and was. fifty-two years old when Adolf Hitler was born in
1889. All evidence obtainable points to' the fact that this
marriage was unhappy. The one fadt which seems to emerge from
the cloud covering this marriage is that Hitler's father was a
sadist. This fact was learned by Dr. Sedgwick from Mrs. Brigid
Hitler, the ex-wife of Alois Hitler II, half-brother of Adolf
Hitler.
She called on Dr. Sedgwick on August 10, 1937, at his
London home and told him that her ex-husband Alois had described
his own father as of very violent temper, in the habit of beatin
his dog until the dog wet the oarpet. He also beat his children
and upon occasion In a bad temper would go so far as to beat
his wife Klara.
The pattern thus becomes clear. On one side was the
hated father and on the other the suppressed mother, who quite
possibly enjoyed this treatment, and young Adolf, at this period
Just reaoh'Ing the age of puberty, and constitutionally opposed
to his father (of. " Me In Kampf " ) . The result of this domestic
situation, on Hitler was a mixture of Naroissus and Oedipus com-
plexes.
Ther is not the slightest doubt that -Hitler 1 s hyster-
ical-eyed mother oooupies the oontral position in his whole
erotic genesis-. She was of the profoundest influence during th<
period from the age of" fourteen when his father, Alois, died un-
til his mother* s death when he was nearly twenty. Probably for
very good reasons these five formative years are practically
ignored in "Me in Kampf ". The death of his mother, however, is
referred to as "the greatest loss I ever had." This statement
was repeated to Dr. Sedgwick in 1923.
Brigid Hitler is the wife of Alois Hitler II, who is
seven years older than his half-brother Adolf. Separated from
her husband, she is now in the United States with her son, Pat-
r
rick Hitler, the author of a book, "I hate my Uncle".
Mrs. Brigid Hitler was born in Dublin during 1894. H
husband, when last reported, was keeping a restaurant in Berlin
He was allowed to return to Berlin in 1937 where he opened a
restaurant on the Kurfuerstendamm near the Kaiser Wilheln^s
Gedaeohtis-Kirohe, which is frequented by S.A. and S.S. men.
The name Hitler does not appear in connection with this restau-
rant, but it is well-known that the proprietor- is a half-brother
of Hitler, whom- he has seen in the Chancellery.
During his youth Alois Eitler II had several convicti
for theft and subsequently went to Dublin where he was a
waiter and met and married Brigid when she was seventeen
In 1911. Two years later he was expelled from England on a
charge of being a souteneur. In "Me In Kampf " Hitler of course
never mentions his half-brother, Alois H, who' is the skeleton
i
in the Hitler family cupboard.
EDUCATION
Hitler has always despised education, having had so
little himself. He dislikes so much the "Professor Type" that
in 1932 when it was suggested he should be given a degree by
the Government of Braunschweig in order to become a German
citizen he objected. He aid not think it at all funny when
at the Eaiserhof Hotel Dr. Sedgwick said to him laughingly:
"V-'ell, now you sre about to become a Professor after allj"
He decided eventually against this scheme and obtained his
citizenship by being made Ober-Bagierung's-Rat in Braunschweig
during February, 1932. .
He speaks no language other than German and never
listens to any short-wave from any other country exoept
German broadcasts from Paris or Moscow.
Writing.- He writes very few letters himself. He
writes only in longhand and never uses a typewriter. How-
ever, he writes notes to accompany flowers for commemorative
occasions.
v^fctJHfc r" 7
He nevers carries either a pencil, pen or paper with
him and never makes any notes himself, only drawings and
doodles. These drawings or sleet ones are usually of flags,
Party sumbols, stage settings, portrait heads and houses w
His doodles are usually developed out of a square and are
oolleoted avidly by the official photographer, Heinrich Hoff-
i
mann, who intends to edit them at some future time, possible
after Hitler's death.
He never consults the calendar nor his date book,
which is kept by Sohaub and Brueckrler. Hitler often used to.
say "I have no private life, not even private correspondence.
Everything is read before I get it. This is the price I
pay. "
Reading .- From " Me in Kampf " it is obvious that Hitler
only reads to confirm his own ideas. He reads only what is
of "value" to him. Just as in converse t ion people ^hear them-
selves even in the words of the man who is talking to them-,
so the majority of readers only read themselves in the books
they are reading. The power to enter into the world of the .
author, as Goethe says, is given to very few people. This
explains in part why the profoundest and the most brilliant
books have, so little real influence on the mass of readers;
Hitler is the exemplification on the grand scale
of this phenomenon. Gifted from childhood with an extra-
ordinary power of speech, in his reading he is only attracted
-8E8REF—
by outstanding examples of rhetoric and historic epigram.
He has read about Solon, Alexander the Great, Marius,
Sulla, Brutus , Catilina, Caesar, Henry VIII, Gustave Adolf,
Frederick the Great, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Moses, Luther,
Cromwell, Napoleon, Kutusov, Bluoher, Richard Wagner and
Bismarck.
However, all those, lives he has read -with his interest
confined to the demagogic, propagandist io and militaristic side.
Hitler's world is one of action, not contemplation* That is
why he prefers the dramatic, revolutionary Schiller to the
Olympian and contemplative Goethe. Biographies which lack a
note of rebellion and titanic protest against the existent
world bore him. He considers them saturated, bourgeois stuff •
For example, when Hitler reads Napoleon's life he is interested
only in a sort of a film scenario of the parts of the life which
show action, never in the contemplative side.
He is always on the look-out for ^he dramatic phrase,
the happy epigram which he can twist to his own use. • He dis-
plays in the use of such a phrase a fantastic sense for ca-
dence, euphony, assonance and alliteration.
One good phrase or political oatchword is worth :taore
to him than cartloads of dry exposition and theory. A catch-
word gives the unthinking mob not only the material for an
idea, but also furnishes them with the pleasant illusion that
they are thinking themselves.
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There is only so much room In a brain, so much wall
spaoe as it were, and If you furnish it with your slogans
the opposition has no place to put up any pictures later on,
because the apartment of the brain is already crowded with
furniture.
In modern history It is the lives of Oliver Cromwell,
Frederick the Great, Napoleon and Bluecher which have interested
Hitler the most since childhood. ( See pp. 42-56).
Concentration .- Hitler will listen attentively to any-
thing he likes to hear, but if the subject is unpleasant, he
will look at a picture paper and pay as little attention as.
possible. He often reads Party Reports himself and concen-
trates on them while he is. so doing, provided that they in-
terest him. He avoids reading Reports , and desk work as much
as possible almost to the point of negligence. His entourage
Is in a continuous state of despair on account off his pro-
crastination in dealing with this desk work. These protests
v.
of his staff he never takes seriously. Hitler says: "Problems
are not solved by getting fldgetty. If the time is ripe the
matter* will be settled one way or another."
Noise. -He is extraordinarily Impervious to noise.
While he reads the papers, boisterous conversation does not
annoy him, : rather the contrary, because he likes to Jbe able
to overhear what is being said. A constant buzz of many
voices is to him almost like a substitute for going out into
the world and seeing what Is going on for himself.
Silence .- Hitler has a great capacity for silence.
In the train or automobile from Berlin to Munich ho would
say only perhaps a few words during the entire journey. He
would be thinking and planning.
Conversation .- During meals he is apt to let the
conversation be general, but after an hour of two he starts
a monologue . These monologues form part of a -fixed reper-
toire. They will be of a finished perfection like phonograph
-records - the favorite ones being: "When I was in Vienna" and
"Y/han I was a soldier", "When I was in prison", m £hen I was ■
the leader in the early days of the Party," and so forth.
He frequently gets onto the subject of fiiohard
Wagner and the opera. Noone interrupts these encore -
rhapsodies. He carries on with these until the guests
finally break down and must retire, because they can no
r
longer keep their eyes open. * . .
The guests, which consisted overwhelmingly of women,
listened enraptured. At the end there was not a dry seat in
the audience.
He hardly ever mentions his collaborators when they
aireynot present. He does not tolerate gossip, except pos-
sibly at Goebbels' house very late at night or at Heinrioh
Hoffmann's house in Munich.
Debate.- During an argument he has an Incredible
lucidity. He is concise and knows how to present his case
like a sputtering machine gun. Ihe cadenoes of his sen-
tences are irresistibly shaped; they have a piercing power.
No other orator has ever made such an impression on Dr.
Sedgwick.
PHYSIQUE
Personal Appearanoe .- He is meticulous about his
personal appearance and will never remove his ooat In
public - no matter how warm he feels. He allows noone to
see him in his bath or see him naked. In his dress he
is always very conventional and takes the advice of his
tailor. He puts on the clothes that are laid out Cor him
by Schaub without any fusslness. He never uses perfume.
Dr. Sedgwick at various times brought back from England
f
Xardley's lavender-smelling-salts, whioh he would use when
fatigued by very long speeches or during trips by plane to
get away from the smell of gasoline. Hitler always objected
to Dr. Sedgwick's use of perfume and twitted him about it.
Hitler disapproved of Dr. Sedgwick's giving lavender salts
to Angela Hltler-Raubal, his sister, who was the mother of
Geli Raubal who shot herself.
In 1923 Dr. Sedgwick; who disliked Hitler's little
mustache, tried to convinoe him of its ugliness arguing
that it should extend to the full width of the mouth. Dr.
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-12- "8r;art-
Sedgwick said: "Look at the portraits by Holbein and Van
Dyck, the old masters would never have dreamt of such an
ugly fashion!" Hitler replied: "Do not worry about my
mustache. If it is not the fashion now, it will be later
because I wear it!"
Cleanliness .- He is strict about bathing himself and
likes a tub. He shoves himself every day. Onoe' a week the
barber trims his moustache, and his hair is out at regular
intervals. Arrangements for these matters are in the hands
of Sannenberg. A local barber, an old Party member, is
generally employed.
Endurance .- Hitler is quite robust and has a good
deal of physical endurance. In 1932 he and his staff , often
worked twenty hours a day for weeks on end. He seemed to
stand it better than his staff as it was he who was setting
the pace. After a long and heavy day and missingfone or two
meals he always insists on his chauffeurs and staff eating
first and he himself will eat last. If food is placed before
him by some enthusiastic waitress he will carry it himself
to the chauffeurs.
Exercise .- He is completely uninterested in either
indoor or outdoor games. He takes no exercise other than
walking and this at irregular intervals. . His pacing of
the room is frequent and done a la marcia, to a tune which
he whistles. He never walks the length of the room but
always diagonally from corner to oorner - possibly a habit
oontraoted when a prisoner in Landsberg.
While, he was .imprisoned in Landsberg, Hess organized
■ 1
games and exercise for 'the prisoners but Hitler refused to
take part saying that it would be undignified for him to do
so, and "bad for general discipline." For exax&l.e, Hitler
said: "A Fuehrer cannot stopp to such informality. I must
always keep up distance from the entourage."
While he has considerable knowledge of the workings
of a car or an airplane he has never learnt to drive either.
He is fond of automobile riding as a means of getting privacy,
fresh air - and sleep. When the weather is bad he does not
go put. However, if he has any engagement he disregards the
elements. In any parade he uses an open car regardless of
the weather. He demands the same of his entire entourage.
Hitler says: "We are not bourgeois but soldiers."
Sight .- To be with Hitler, particularly at night,
is an ordeal for people with sensitive eyes. Dr* Sedgwick
was sometimes driven to distraction in the early hours of the
morning by the brilliant light Hitler always insists on
having all round him. Dr. Sedgwick was forced to the con-
elusion that' Hitler's eyes were not normal, which might
have been oaused by gas poisoning in the Fall of 1918 when
he almost went blind. This factor very likely cones into
play in his artistic tastes and in the manner in which he
judges paintings. Only very bright colors really satisfy
him. Up to 1937 he never wore glasses of any kind or any
protection against sun glare, even in the snow. Of late
Dr. Sedgwick understands that on account of headaches
caused by his eyes he has had to follow the advice of his
physicians and now wears reading glasses. He probably re-
sisted this as long as it was possible for him to do so.
Partly from vanity and partly through his contempt for the
"Professor Type" spectacles have always been a nightmare
for him.
Voioe.- His voice possesses a typically Austrian
metallic sonority and timbre. In general he talks softly'
but he is quite capable on occasion of launching out into
a forceful speech even with only one or* two people present.
The cliche story of his screaming loudly is not true and
is much exaggerated. Contradiction in public rarely in-
duces very loud replies. It is different during office
hours; - then anything may lead to a "grande . scene" and he
will lose his temper.
He has special drinks made for him before and after
a speech to soothe his voice and probably now has his throat ,
sprayed regularly before speaking.
Speaking is really his chief form of exercise and
after a speech he will be bathed in perspiration. He is
probably only happy and restful when he has taiked himself
to the point of swooning from exhaustion.
Sleep .- He sleeps very badly since his imprisonment
at Landsberg. He takes some sleeping draft every night. He
i
goes' to bed as late as possible and when his £ast friends
leave him exhausted at two or three in the morning or even
later it is almost as though he were afraid to be alone.
Sometimes he Is unable to sleep until dawn. However,
he usually manages to sleep until ten when he receives his
two secretaries of State, Lammers and Funk. He dislikes
oentral heating in the bedroom and in winter has a stove
made of Dutch tiles (Kachelofen, )
Reactions .- He Is a mixture between a fox and a wolf.
He plays the 'fox as long a possible und sometimes even a
lamb but in. the end the- end the wolf is always ready to emerge.
It is interesting that 1 in the early days of 1920 up to 1933
his secret name for telephone messages and in the conversa-
tions of his friends was "Wolf. Frau V?innifred Wagner still
calls him by this name.
He is astonishingly brave. In the year 1923 certain
phases of the Party were decided by street fighting In which
he was always courageous. After his Imprisonment in Landsberg
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he was continually In increasing danger of assassination.
He does not particularly seek out danger, but if he decides
that a thing must be done, he calmly thinks out the pre-
cautions to be taken and then goes through with the job
absolutely fearlessly.
It is a perfectly conscious bravery. He "remains
calm and collected even In emergencies and knows exactly
the best method of checkmating his enemies. He .faces
physical pain also with exemplary courage. He is very much
afraid of the water and cannot swim.
DIET
good .- He abstains almost completely from meat.
Upon rare occasions he eats a little chicken with rice
or smoked salmon as an appetizer. In 1932 Dr.. Sedgwick
had occasion to watch his diet very closely: Hitler would
get up In the morning around 9:30 and breakfast on an apple,
hot milk or very weak coffee with rolls, butter and marmalade.
This breakfast was followed by doses of medicine
administered to him by his valet-secretary, Julius. Schaubj .
a former pharmacist's apprentice. Schaub today as then -is
in charge of Hitler's home medicine chest, which oonslsts
of two classes of drugs: sleeping powders for the night.;
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
and digestive powders with which he starts the day and which
are taken after every meal. Luncheon is supposed to be at
1 p.m. However, ITitler is almost invariably one and half
to two hours late - which drives his major-domo, Kannenberg
to despair. Hitler practically never has a normal appetite-
in Berlin but it improves markedly at Berchtesgaden.
Otto Dietrich, who suffers from a weak digestion,
often left his offioe at 1.0, went across to the Kaiserhof
and returned half an hour later having had luncheon. He would
then wait for hitler to arrive. While in Berlin the slightest
pretext would be welcomed by Hitler as an excuse for still
further postponing luncheon. He would usually have some soup,
generally pea soup or tomato soup with parmesan, followed by
a special dish of omelette with asparagus tips or mushrooms,
spinaoh or cauliflower, and a green salad.
At Berchtesgaden he has Bavarian dishes such as
yellow boletus mushrooms with dumplings i.e. "steinpilze
mit knoedel."
For dessert he prefers Austrian pastries, pancakes
or some cooked farinaceous dish.
At five o*olook he drinks coffee or tea with rum
of medium strength with baum-torte, linzer torte, nuss torte,
chokoladen-torte, or toast.
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
He cannot resist dissolving really good chocolates
in his coffee.
In the evening he is supposed to dine at eight
o'olock but it Is rare for him to get to it until nine
or later. The evening meal is similar to luncheon usually
a vegetable plate i.e. ,, gemueseplatte ,, .
Drink .- Beer and wine drinking he gave.^up after his
imprisonment in Landsberg. If he gets a cold he will some-
times take hot tea with rum in it. In July, 1934, Dri
Sedgwick brought him back some Jamaica rum. He said he would
use It, but only when he had a cold. Kis private doctor
is a frequent guest at his table. It was this young doctor,
who in the summer of 1933 saved Brueekneis's life after his
automobile accident in Berohtesgaden. Hitler then decided
to have a private doctor always near him in order to per-
form any necessary operation on the spot. HitlcrT said:
"A good doctor on the spot is easily as important as a whole
platoon of guards.*
Smoking .- As a soldier Hitler smoked and drank beer*
However, by 1922 and even earlier he had stopped what little
smoking he had done. The motive given was "to increase his
capacity as a speaker and his general efficiency." If he is
not going to make a speech he tolerates smoking around him,
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- 19 -
and even keeps supplies of smokes for Ms friends. Smoking
Is never permitted during his speeches. This is also true
for the great Party rallies held outdoors at Nuernberg. How-
ever, at these smoking is considered bad etiquette and hence
never permitted. Hitler inwardly sides with the purists and
abstainers. In this he was backed up by Hess and the Spartan
program of living. Inwardly Hitler always resented Roehn^s
epicurean habits and opulent Havana cigars. .
If people ask him regarding his ascetic life Hitler
replies: "If I once find that a thing is not good for me,
then I stop eating it^ As I know that meat, beer and nicotine
injure and impair my constitution, I don*t indulge in them
>
any more. Such a decision is taken once, and for always.
Is that so wonderful?"
PERSONAL PROTECTION
Hitler and Hiramler decided that the be*st method
would be that the police should alternate - one looking at
the procession and one looking into the crowd. The pro-
cession itself must be convoyed in the style desoribed to
Hitler by Dr. Sdegwick as that used by U. S. Secret Police
for the protection of Woodrow Wilson. The system consists
of motor cycles on the right and left of the central oar,
and two police cars following the car of the personage.
Hitler S. S. police oars have strict orders to accelerate
and run down anyone who emerges from the crowd.
Hitler always site in the front seat next to the
chauffeur. This gives him the protection of a bullet-
proof glass windscreen in .front, the chauffeur on one
side, and members of the armed entourage behind him in
the oar. He is against armed men on the running board
as he thinks it looks overcautious to the crowd and also
detracts from the triumphant and joyful note which his
appearance should elicit.
Hitler has said that too clumsy a display of pre-
cautionary measures indicates a lack of security and sug-
gests to the crowd a kind, of guilty weakness whioh would
leave an odious impression. To Ilimmler he once referred to
this overemphasis on his personal safety as giving a picture
of a " Tyrann auf Reisen ".
When he is in residence at Berchtesgaden he goes
for country walks in Indian file, with five or sfx armed
guards in oivilian clothes in front and five or six behind*
On both sides of this cavalcade armed patrols
cover the flanks at a distance of about one hundred paces.
These walks are always in the afternoon, never -in the
morning.
The fact is that since 1933 and even earlier the
guarding of his person has' beoome such an important problem
that he is virtually a prisoner and he knows it. This
results in a desire to escape from this imprisonment either
by seeing friends, moving pictures or riding in an automobi-
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 21
Hitler one a said to Dr. Sedgwiok: "If you come down
to it, I am very much in the position of the Pope, who for
similar and other reasons has to remain, confined in the Vatican.
That is why the whole quadrangle of the Wilhelmstrasse must
sooner or later be added to the Reichskanlei area and sur-
rounded with colonnades for walking in bad weather. That.
i
would hold good also for my successor and his successors
This was said at the Reiehskanzlei in the summer of 1934
with what seemed a special emphasis for Goering, who was sit-
ting at his right,
. ENTERTAINMENT
All his domestic diversions are planned by Eerr Artur
Eannenberg. In 1934 Kannenberg was in tears about the ever-
lasting horseplay of Brueckner and the other members of Hitler's
entourage and finally Dr. Sedgwick was asked if. he could not
find a job for him in the United States. f
Kannenberg is a fat, witty Berliner who can sing
and play the piano. He is in charge of the kitohens and.
he and his wife cook and test everything for Hitler*
Music - The musio disliked by Hitler is mainly
confined to the Classics, particularly musio by Bach,
Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. To these
renderings he listens only with relative attention.
-seesaw
He enjoys gypsy music, rhapsodies and czardas
also music by Liszt and the dreamy music of Grieg. Wagner,
Verdi and certain pieces by Chopin and Richard Strauss
delight him.
Music which does not lift him out of his seat
by its sensuous appeal leaves him cold. About 85 per cent
of Hitler's preferences in music are the normal program
music in Viennese cafes. It is doubtless the vagabond in
Hitler*s make-up which gives him such a kick out of Liszt.
The changes from dejection to triumph are what makes him
like Magyar music such as the Rakocszy.
The Viennese musio of the Lehar and Johann Strauss
type was only appreciated by Hitler after he came to power.
Tristan acts as a dope to him. If he is facing an
unpleasant situation he likes to have Keistersinger played
to him. Sometimes he would reoite entire passages of the
Lohengrin text. Dr. Sedgwick was amazed to find that he
knew the whole thing by heart, probably memories from his
early Viennese days.
He also uses a gramophone for his favorite operas.
He is partial to Verdi operas which he really knows very
well.
In 1923 he adored American football marches and
college songs. . The " Sieg Hell l* used in all political rallies
\
\
\
, !
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is a direct copy of tlie technique used by American football
cheer leaders. American College type of music was used to
excite the German masses who had been used to very dry-as-
. dust political lectures.
Hitler's technique of arriving late for almost all
rallies was designed to give the crowd time to get worked
up by the martial music and to get acquainted with one
another.
Hitler rarely attended concerts but often went to
the opera. He does not like to sit in a row; he must have
his. own private box.
Music Is more to him a period of rest and thought
than a pleasure. It has a triple funotion: to isolate him
from the world; relaxation; and excitement - spur to action.
In difficult times Goebbels resorts not infrequently
to doping Hitler with speeches of all vintages by Hitler.
This never fails to put him into a good humor.
Dancing .' Hitler never dances himself. He considers
it unworthy of a Statesman, but is more than willing to watch
others for a time. This may be associated with an inner desire
for erotic adventure by proxy* The demi-mondaine character of
the women in question do not by any means lower his sense of
appreciation.
- 2 <T . -t-crtfiF-
Theatre .- He very rarely rrent to the theatre.
Yaudevllle .- He likes vaudeville^
Cirous .- He loves the circus. The thrill of under-
paid performers risking their lives is a real pleasure to
him. He is particularly pleased with tight* rope aots and
trapeze artists. After his imprisonment in Landsberg he
came to lunch at Dr. Sedgwick's house in 1925_and when Dr.
Sedgwick was called to the telephone he said to Mrs. Sedgwick:
"Now we'll have to try all over again, but this time you can
be certain that I won't fall from- the tight rope J"
During the summer of 1933 be went several times to
the circus and on the next day he would send flowers and
ohocolat.es to the value of several hundred marks to the girls,
who had performed dangerous feats before him. He remembere.d
the names of these people and in the event of an accident to
one of them would cbnoern himself with what happened to
them or to their surviving relatives. Upon one occasion
after reading the account in a newspaper he sent a message
of sympathy to the family of a trapeze artist who was killed
during her act. (Nb. The appeal of the non-bourgeois - "the
gypsy milieu of circus artists.")
He does not care much' for wild animals aots, unless
there is a woman in danger.
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
News .- I7J.tl.er has a consuming passion to learn the
latest news. If someone comes into the room with a handful
of newspapers, he will stop abruptly the most important con-
versation and snatch the papers to find out the latest nev.-s.
He has realized for many years that almost all information,
no matter how varied or how apparently unimportant, can serve
his own purposes at some particular moment, 1
When he goes to bed he always takes an armful of
illustrated periodicals, including American magazines and
quantities of magazines on Naval and Military matters.
Radio . - He has a radio in all the prinoipal rooms
and on every floor. These are generally worked by Xannenberg,
Goebbels or Sohaub. Whenever Mussolini broadoasts Goebbels
arranges for Hitler to listen. He derives profound pleasure
from the Italian pronunciation, ennunciation, and the dramatic
oratory of II Duce. r
Here as in music the same holds true: What is
full of fire, life and drama fascinates him. What Is not
dramatic does not interest Hitler.
Movies.- Almost every night or every other night
Hitler sees a picture In his private theatre In tne
Chancellery- Goebbel6 secures for him pictures which are
forbidden to be shown publicly in Germany. These .consist
mainly of foreign motion pictures yrhioh might cause Com-
munistic and other demonetrations during the performance.
He enjoys nev/sreels, particularly those featuring
himself. He likes comedies and will laugh heartily at a
Jewish comedian. He even likes a Jewish singer and will say
afterward that it is too bad he or she Is not arl Aryan!
Movies are made of political prisoners and exe-
cutions and this satisfies his sadistic instincts. There
Is reason to believe that Heinrioh Hoffmann also shows him
pornographic photographs and movies.
He was particularly interested in the film of the
murder of Marseilles of King Alexander and Jean Louis
Barthou. Prime Minister of France. With Eimmler at his
side he saw the picture twice at one sitting in order to
analyze the mistakes made by the French Surete. He decided
that these errors were: the use of Mounted Police; and
Police armed with sabers. At such a moment horses only
cause panic and do not get quickly enough to the root of
the trouble. The streets were also Insufficiently guarded
on the sidelines by policemen.
RELIGION
Hitler believes In the method of the Catholic. Church
which knows how to build up a mental world, by a constant
and periodic repetition throughout the ghurch year of certain
passages in the Scriptures. This leads to these ohapters
assuming a slogan- like concentration in the brains of the
hearers.
The brain of the good Catholic is so furnished with
slogans that his reaction to any experience is practically
automatic.
Eis totalitarian anti-Christianism was due to the
Hess - Rosenberg influence during his imprisonment. For
ten years after Hitler 1 s release there was no outward ex-
pression of this feeling until his appointment of Rosenberg
in 1934 as supreme inspector for the spiritual - political
training of all German youth. On that day Hitler threw off
the mask whioh he had worn until then. He decided to abandon
the Christian symbolism of Richard Wagner (of. Wagner's
Parsifal) as well as H. S. Chamber lain * s "Christian Aesthetic
Conservatism." *
METAMORPHOSIS IN LAKBSBERG
The curious change which I had noticed in Hitler
after his release from Landsberg at Christma^. 1924 became
gradually clearer to me. He had been there with Roehm and
Hess and had become very intimate with both of them. Young
Hess particularly was in bis thoughts the whole time. "If
only I could get him out of Landsberg," he- used- to say,
"Mein hesserl." "I can't forget the way his eyes filled
with tears when I left the fortress. The poor fellow."
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES "
- 28 -
I had noticed when visiting Hitler at the fortress
that he was on "du" terms with Rudolf Hess, but it was
curious to note that after Hess's release in 1926 he
dropped the "du" and always referred to Hitler as M Mein
Fuehrer". In fact it was Hess who consciously began building
up the equivalent of a Duoe-cult rampant in Italy. This
i
was disagreeable to the old members of the Party who continued
to use the familiar, informal "Herr Hitler" as a mode of
addressing him. It was at this time that Hitler's admiration
for Mussolini reached its height.
In addition to translating the Mussolini-Duoe cult
into terras of a "Mein Fuehrer Cult" Hess tried, evidently
with some success, to imbue Hitler afresh with the Geopoli-
tical theories and doctrines emanating from the study of
the Bavarian retired General, Professor Max Hausbtofer. Among
these theories the most important leitmotiv was tfhe central
position reserved for the Japanese Empire and Nipponese power-
potentialities in the Paoifio Ooean. To Haushofer the future
of the twentieth. century was going to be largely determined
J by the expansion of the Japanese people and their Empire.
Another faotor whloh quite evidently dates back
to the Landsberg prison period of Hitler is the proba-
bility that during this period of Isolation and sexual
privation an affinity with Hess began to crystallize which
to my mind might have possibly bordered on the sexual.
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
After Roehm's assassination (June 30, 1934) when I
learned of Hess's nickname among homosexual members of the
party was "Fraeulein Anna" and that it was notorious that he
had attended balls dressed in female attire — my thoughts re-
turned to the Landsberg period ten years earlier. It was
only then that certain hitherto unsuspected and unnoticed
*
ominous traits in Hitler's character began to, occupy my
attention. It was then — after Roehm's assassination — that
small driblets of information reaching me from time to time
compelled me to regard Hitler as a sado-masochistic type of
man with possibly even a homosexual streak in him, (Cf. Hess
and von Schirach, etc. — all of them abnormal). When in
March, 1937 I showed Hitler's' handwriting to Jung at Zuerich,
he said dryly: "Hinter dieser Schrift ist niohts als ein
grosses ^eib." 1 * .
SEXUAL LIFE *
The Vienna Period .- Hitler's stay in "Vienna began in
1909. This was the first time in his life that he became
acquainted with metropolitan prostitution. Reading between
the lines of "Me in Kampf" it is quite possible to suppose
that at this time he became infected with some venereal
disease by a Jewish prostitute.
T. "Behind this handwriting I recognize the typical ~ ' r ~*"
characteristics of a man with essentially feminine
instincts."
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 30 -
The Men* s Hostel called "Maennerhelm Briftlttenan
in Vienna had, Dr. Sedgwick believes, the reputation of
being a place where elderly men went in search of young
men for homosexual pleasures. 3 -
It is probable that these typeB of old roues and
young gigolos became familiar to the young Adolf at this time
i
whioh would account for his relative lack of genuine disgust
with them up to the present time.
During this so-called "Vienna-period" Mrs. Brigid
Hitler states that Adolf Hitler saw a great deal of his
criminal half-brother Alois II, who was bumming around Vienna.
In Dr. Sedgwick's opinion it is unlikely that Hitler indulged
in any homosexual relationship at this time but rather repre-
sented, as he does today, the type of egocentric and masturbic
Narcissus with the oraving for the unfindable woman and occa-
sional hysterical outbursts of a sado-masochistfc nature.
Analysis .- His sex life is dual as is hiB political
outlook. He is both homosexual and hetero-sexual; both
Socialist and fervent Nationalist; both man and woman. While
the true Adolf Hitler is elusive to the diagnostician, there
are certain facts whioh prove that his sexual situation is
untenable and even desperate. There seem to be psychic if
TZ This information was given to Dr. Sedgwick in 1938 by ••
a member of the former Dollfuss regime, Herr von Seidler,
who is now in the U.S.A.
- 31 - tjCGfiep-
not also physical obstacles which make real and complete
sexual fulfillment ever impossible.
In general, what he seeks is half-mother and half-
sweetheart. Since 1933 t however, he also obtains esthetic
% ■
satisfaction from adolesoent boys or girls. However; above
all the dominant factor remains, which is frustration, be-
cause of not finding the woman he needs in everyday life
he has escaped into brooding isolation, and artiflcally
dramatized public life.
For example, obvious prostitutes barely admitted
to the Kaiserhof Hotel were fervently admired by him pro-
vided that they appeared in couples or with a man. A soli-
tary woman is usually ignored by him unless he is in a large
orowd and can send an A. D.C. to find out her identity. He
always wishes to be a speotator. *
"Do you know", he onoe said to Dr. Sedgwick in
1923 1 "the audience at the circus is just like a woman. 1
Someone who does not understand that intrinsically feminine
character of the mass will never be an effective speaker.
Ask yourself what does a woman expect from a man? Clearness,
deoision, power, action. Like a woman the masses fluctuate
T\ "Die Masse, das Volk ist wie ein Weib." ~
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 32 - , tk±H-fct~"^
between extremes. What we want is to get the masses to act.
This oan obviously not be done with an appeal to their self-
ishness nor to their cowardioe, but by an appeal to their,
idealism, their courage and their spirit of sacrlfioe. Y/ho
has more the spirit of sacrifioe than a woman? If she is
talked to properly she will be proud to sacrifice, because
i
no woman will ever feel that her life's sacrifices have re-
ceived their due fulfillment. "
Once Dr. Sedgwick asked him: n Why don't you marry
and fool your enemies?"
Hitler answered: "Marriage is not for me and never
will be. My bnly bride is my Motherland." Then seemingly
with no sequence of ideas he added: "There are two ways by
which a man's character may be judged, by the woman ho marries,
and then by the way he dies."
In 1923, when Dr. Sedgwick once playfully said:
"If not a bride you ought to have a mistress." Hitler
replied: "Politics is a woman; he who loves her unhappily
she bites off his head".^
Some time later while speaking of women Hitler Occas-
ionally quoted the Russian proverb. "If you go to a woman
don't, forget your whip." This was said with the idea that
T~. "Die Pbli.tik ist ein Weib, wer sie ungluoklioh llebt,-
dem beisst sie den Kopf ab."
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 33 - <m*.t-i— —
roan should be, the master of the erotio situation. Anyone who
has ever seen Hitler talking in a bashful and puerile way
to a woman would easily be led to believe that in marriage
he would be the underdog, but that is manifestly- wrong.
It would seem that the whip plays some mysterious role in
his relationship to women. In Dr. Sedgwick'' s opinion during
almost fifteen years of association with Hitler," the whip
with which Hitler loves to gestioulate figures as a kind
of substitute or auxiliary symbol for his missing sexual
potency. All this wielding of the whip seems to be connected
with a hidden desire on the part of Hitler for some state
of erection which would overoome his fundamental sexual in-
feriority complex. The truth is that Hitler is in all prob-
ability still in the stage of puberty, and still ^n the
essential meaning of the word a virgin.
Whether Hitler's habit of carrying and gesticulating
with a whip, even while talking to a woman, is a memory-residue
of his whip-carrying, sadistic father must be left an open
question. It certainly forms a curious phenomenon that the
•whip-motive' occurs so frequently in Hitler's erotic and
political technique and that it links itself, consciously
or unconsciously, with another of his complexes; " The
Messiah-Complex " . What is meant will be seen from the fol-
lowing incident.
■In June, 1923, Dr. Sedgwick visited Berchtesgaden
at Hitler's invitation but at his own expense. At that time
"Hitler owned no house there but was staying at the Pension
Moritz, whose Manager was Herr Buechner, a German flyer of
World War I and who had a strikingly buxom six root tall,
blonde wife, whloh made her taller than Hitler. t This rather
vulgar, sensuous, blue-eyed woman had manifestly succeeded in
completely inflaming Hitler to a degree that made him seem
entirely beyond himself. His breath was short, his cheeks
feverish, his eyes filled with exaltation. In a swash-
buckling manner Hitler was strutting up and down the large
verandah and garden, swinging his whip. He would stop now
and again to talk to Frau Buechner, whip in hand, punctuating
his sentences with the whip in a schoolboy fashion. He was
obviously showing off talking at Frau Buechner add the numerous
"gallery" of admiring females, all Party adherent's. He made,
however, no impression on Frau Buechner. On and on he went,
through the whole afternoon aoting the desperado, the wild
man, the man of destiny. The whole performance seemed hope-
lessly pubescent and empty.
Anton Drexler and his wife who were simple, nice
people did not like this spectaole. Drexler was one of the
founders- of the Party and his wife one of the most important
women members. They thought it undignified and scandalous and
especially so because Frau Buechner was a married woman which
gave to the whole thing an adulterous aspect. But there v/as
•another person, present, who also criticized Hitler, Dietrioh
Eckart, the poet. He was a fairly large, stoutish man with
an impressive, bald head, small, twinkling eyes, a stentorian
i
voice and a soft Bavarian heart. He was entirely a man of
the world and a free-thinker,, but nonetheless was revolted
by Hitler* s exhibitionism. It so happened that a shortage
of rooms that night obliged him to share his room with Dr.
Sedgwick. When they retired in the evening he poured forth
the following: "You ought to have been here yesterday.
You ought to have been here this morning. The way Adolf
is carrying on now goes beyond me.* There's nothing you
can tell him any more. The man is plainly crazy.- Yfelking
up and down with his whip, talking to that sillyicow, Frau
Buechner, he went so far as to describe his last visit to
Berlin. Hitler said: "Y/hen I came to Berlin a few weeks
ago and looked at the traffic in the Kurfuerstendamm, the
luxury, the perversion, the iniquity, the wanton display,
and the Jewish materialism disgusted me so thoroughly, that
I was almost beside myself. I nearly imagined myself to be
Jesus Christ when he came to his Father T s Temple and found
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
NOTE
A TOTAL OF 68 PAGES MAKE UP THIS
DOCUMENT. HOWEVER, PAGE NUMBER 36 IS
MISSING FROM THIS COPY OF THE DOCUMENT
AND WAS NOT FOUND IN HITLER'S ORIGINAL
201 FILE.
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
\
The day after his conversation with Dietrich fickart,
Dr. Sedgwiok left the Pension Moritz. He was accompanied on
his walk down to Berchtesgaden by Hitler and some of his
friends but not by Eckart. Hitler must have felt that Eckart
had been oriticizing him. Soom after they started Hitler
turned the conversation onto Eckart.
i
"Dietrich Eckart has really become an,.pld pessimist,"
Hitler said, "a senile weakling, who has fallen in love with
this girl Annerl, who is thirty years younger than him. He.
is as undecided as Hamlet or rather he is like Ibsen's "Peer
Gynt", which he translated only too well, a man who never
knows what he wants. Schopenhauer has done Eckart no good.
He has made him a doubting Thomas, who only looks forward to
a Nirvana. Where would I get if I listened to all his trans-
cendental talk? A nice ultimate wisdon that I To^reduce
oneself to a minimum of desire and will. Once wiCl is gone
all id gone. This life is War."
He raved on and on against Eckart, partly because
Eckart had shown his disapproval of Hitler oomparing himself
to the Messiah, and partly because Hitler was furiously
envious of Eckart" 8 having fallen in love with a young girl.
The conversation changed and Hitler started to whistle
the "Swan Song" from Lohengrin. He did this in a ourious soft
tremolo, which he kept up both breathing in and out. Then
- 37 -
mm-
.3 8 . ~S E GR£T —
again followed outbursts against Eckart whom he called an old
fool as though he wanted to make sure to discredit absolutely
anything Kokart might hove said to Dr. Sodgwiok, who was there~
by made all the more certain that what Eckart had said was
correct.
There waa another cause for Hitler* s raving in that
way and trying to discredit Dietrich Eokart. Anton Drexler
and his wife had been up at the Pension Moritz and together
with Dietrich Eckart and others they had been discussing the
past and the future of the Party. They had all agreed that
so far the year 1923 had not succeeded in achieving the
results which Hitler had prophecied.
At that time there was a large conservative majority
of small bourgeois elements, headed by the Drexlers, who
objected to the lawless and revolutionary course' ^which Hitler
and Rosenberg were pursuing. They were dissatisfied with
Hitler* s continual promises of securing power in Bavaria in
the course of a few weeks. These promises, given in the
middle of January, 1923, when the French had occupied the Ruhr,
were constantly renewed for the succeeding five months.
People like Drexler, Esser, Eckart, and Feder had begu:
to see that Hitler's plans for immediate and violent action
were attracting an increasing bunoh or desperados to the Party
instead of substantial Socialists from t he working class who
wanted t o build up the Party machine throughout Germany until
power could be obtained through sheer weight of numbers with
relatively little violence. _QjTOni
These malcontents had seen clearly tho intention of
Hitler which was to copy the methods of Mussolini, who had
some months previously succeeded in his "Maroh on Rome".
However, they also remembered that the March on Rome was far
better prepared, by a Party numerically enormously stronger,
headed by suoh men as Michel Bianohi, Italo BaLbo, General
i
de Bono find General de Veoohi, and that the U&jph was under-
taken on the taoit invitation of Victor Emmanual III. The
March succeeded in being carried out bloodlesaly because of
its very careful preparation. Eckart said to Dr. Sedgwick:
"Suppose we even succeeded in taking Munich by a Putsch,
Munich is not Berlin. It would lead to nothing but ultimate
failure."
It was at this time that the German and Continental
opposition press began to speak of Hitler as the*' vest-pocket
Mussolini, making fun of his failures to take ov&r power on
May 1, 1923, when the National Socialist feattralionB had to be
hastily disarmed by Captain Roehm. It was this lack of actual
power and lack of support which made a maroh on Berlin
militarily impossible and whioh drove Hitler to see himself
in the role of the Messiah with a scourge marching on "that
Babel of sin" (Berlin) at the head of a small gang of des-
perados, who would inevitable be followed by more and more
of the dissatisfied elements throughout the Reioh.
- 40 -
' i
Hitler quoted the motto of Prinoe Eugen of Savoy
which Dr. Sedgwick had shown him some months before: "You
speak of the lack of support - that is no reason to hesitate,
when the hour is ripe. Let us maroh, then supporters
find themselves."
Even then as later Hitler refused to accept the
advice of the conservative parliamentarian elements within
the Party, knowing well that any compromise with them would
nullify his dreams of being Germany^ future Messiah. "Alles
oder nichts"...
SELF IDENTIFICATION PATTERNS
*
Introduction .- The purpose of the following expose
is to show the important role of auto-suggestion in the career
of Hitler. r
Himself, only one of the many unknown soldiers, Hitler
made it known early that while in the infirmary of Pasewalk
(Fall of 1918) he received a command from another world above
to save his unhappy country. This vocation reached Hitler in
the form of a supernatural vision. He decided to become a
politician then and there. He felt that his mission was to
free Germany. In fulfilling this mission Hitler has made
use of a number of self- identifications.
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES — ~
- 41 - -^E6R-c—
A. The first noticeable identification pattern was
that of the "drummer".
At a number of meetings which took place at the be-
ginning of the year 1923, Hitler would refer to himself as the
drummer marching ahead of a great movement of liberation to
come. He had the idea that his role was that, of an announcer
i
of a new epoch. The great leader was to come sxpe day. He did
not yet see himself as this leader. There was a note of subser-
vience to General Luedendorff and the military caste.
It was about this time that Dr. Sedgwick advised Hitle
to study the Lutheran Bible, which as well as being the equivalen
of the well-tempered clavichord in German literature contains a
perfect arsenal of forceful passages, highly useful in the fight
against the atheistic Bolsheviks, and doubly suited for Bavaria,
the home of the Oberammergau Passion Plays'. '
It must be remembered that at that time^the Party was
fighting for what their program called "positive Christianity" ,
and that Rosenberg's anti-Christian book "The Myth of the Twen-
tieth Century" had not yet been written.
It was not long before Eitler began to use quotations
from the Lutheran Bible. The National-Socialists at that time
were opposed by many people to whom World War I had opened a new
religious, pacifist ic outlook and Hitler's quotations evoked
an especially warm response on the part of his audience. Soon
- 42 - •<g£fctr:
Hitler began to vary the "drummer pattern" to one of self -ident-
ification with John the Baptist.
Hitler used practioally the words of St. Matthew, call;
himself a voice crying in the wilderness a nd describing his
duty as having to straighten the path of him, who was. to lead
the nation to power and glory. Passages like these made a
tremendous impression on his audiences. They seemed to denote
a disarming simplicity and modesty, reminiscent of Joan of Arc.
In his ecstasies as an orator Hitler, like La Puoelle d'Orleans,
seemed to hear voices from Valhalla from some Heiligland above -
voices which ordered him to save Germany.
Since 1933 the "drummer pattern" has been totally
dropped, - the drummer having become the Fuehrer. Nazi
historians even go so far as to deny altogether that Hitler
used to call himself only "the drummer". They have falsified
• r
the Taots to such an extent that they claim it was Hitler's
enemies not he himself who referred to him as a dr umm er - as
a great drummer - in order to kill his chances for supreme
leadership and that the reference to Hitler as the drummer was
1
meant to have, a negative influence on his qualifications.
Hitler and Messiah .- In the same way the "John the
Baptist pattern" is muted entirely. Instead of that the
TZ See Herman Laasch's book entitled "Two thousand years of
German Revolution", p. 262 et seq . Leipzig, 1937.
o-EGRfT —
deifioation of Hitler is progressing steadily. In Dr. Sedgwick'
belief if Sgypt should ever fall it would not be long before
Hitler would visit the Oasis of Siva, as a second Alexander, a
demigod.
In order to combat Rosenberg* s atheistic tendencies
Dr. Sedgwick frequently talked to Hitler, trying to prove to
him how wrong It would be to continue In the attacks on Chris-
tianity, as Christ himself could be termed the first socialist
in tjie history of the world. The Bible and Christianity were
far from played out in their hold on the imagination of the
German people and that even in atheistic Paris, only sixteen
years ago, a picture had been exhibited at the Paris salon durin,
the summer of 1907 which showed Christ on the Cross v/Ith the cap-
tion "Le Premier Socialists" , and not "Christ the Nazarene, King
of the Jews". This over-life-size canvas made a /tremendous im-
pression and the room in which it was exhibited was crowded v/ith
officers, business men, students, priests - all Paris In fact
including the demi-monde.
Dr. Sedgwick told Hitler that if this Christ-Socialist
had made such a deep impression in Paris it must have the same
effect in Catholic Munich. He asked Hitler why he did not use
this Christ-Socialist as a point of departure which would help
to silence the clerical and pseudo-clerical opposition more than
anything else.
- 44 - a-diRET^
Hitler promised to think it over and undoubtedly con-
sulted Rosenberg on the subject as the suggestion interested
him deeply. To Dr. -Sedgwick's surprise Hitler used an entirely
different pioture of. Christ. At a meeting soon, afterward instee
of the. Christ-Sooialist he used the words: "I come to bring
i
you not peaoe, but a sword." He used this phrase to rebut the
pacifists 1 idea of eternal peace.
Hitler's growing tendency to identify himself with the
Messiah is shown in an incident which occurred in the. spring of
1923. The " Muenohener Neueste Nachriohten " , the most widely
read morning paper in Munich, published the story of Hitler's
engagement to Dr. Sedgwick's sister Srna as a rumor. As this
was a complete invention, Dr. Sedgwick consulted with Hitler
as to the best method of refuting it. nitler was very much
flattered by the rumor and when pressed said:- "I authorize
• " f
you hereby to tell the press that I shall never engage myself
to a woman nor marry a woman. The only true bride for me is
and always will be the German People."
To anyone familiar with Christian literature the re-
ference to Christ's true Bride, the Church, comes to mind.
This makes absolutely clear Hitler's self- identification with
the Messiah.
Thus it is seen that Hitler's conception of the
Messiah is not Christ crucified but Christ furious - Christ
T~. Cl\ Earlier mention of uhrist with a scourge.
with a scourge. The oonnection between Hitler as the Messiah
with a scourge and Hitler the frustrated Narcissus did not
occur to Dr. Sedgwick until very recently. However, it is
unquestionably the formula by which the most incongruous fea-
tures of Hitler the Man and Hitler the Statesman can be
reconciled and. understood. Hitler oscillates constantly be-
tween these two personifications.
This explains Hitler's predilection for the word
brutal (pronounced in German Brut ahl ) , which so often high-
lights his speeches, and which he pronounces with especial
vehemence. He places it with great stress at the end of a
sentence and accompanies it with his fiercest expression.
After he came into power, in 1933 » Dr. Sedgwick tried
to make him see that in view of the fact that the. Party was
now in power such demagogic words were really no longer
necessary. Dr. Sedgwick wrote a letter to Hess on that sub-
ject, warning him of the evil oonsequenoes of associating
the word brutal with the Party because in German this word
means "oruel" or "merciless" but in English means "savage"
or "bestial". Millions of English-speaking people would read
the word brutal and misunderstand it. The dangerous thing
was that it was not being used by them but members of the
Party who used this term. No attention was paid to this
warning. The word "brutal" remained both in Hitler's vocabu-
lary and in that of hundreds of his underlings. It became
a cliche in all Nazi oratory.
^B£6f}frf —
Hitler and Cromwell .- Besides admiring Cromwell as an
enemy of Parliamentarianism, Hitler admires him also as the
enemy of universal franchise, of Communism, and of Roman
1
Catholicism. . .
In Oliver Cromwell he admires the self-appointed
Dictator, the breaker of the British Parliament^, the oreator
of the British Navy, and to a lesser degree, the military
leader.
That Cromwell, the Puritan, had the courage to sign
2
the death warrant of Charles I and have him' beheaded is of
special and pathological interest.
Hitler and Frederick the Great .- In regard to the life
of Frederick the Great it is the early period, during which the
young Prince is in violent opposition to his aged and stern
soldier father, which has the greatest fascination for Hitler.
. r
The similarities of Frederick's own early life with that of
Hitler's childhood are so obvious. Frederick's st.mggle against
his father Frederick William I of Prussia and Hitler's own
struggles with the brutal and whip-wielding Alois Schiokelgruber
Hitler show clear similarities. But it is anomalous that in
this (rare) case Hitler should side partially with the father.
Dr. Sedgwick remembers that in the spring of 1923
he took Hitler to see a then famous film "The Life of Frederick
the Great." In one scene the tyrannical father ordered his
T. In 1923 on the occasion of Hitler's birthday Dr. Sedgwick
pointed out to Hitler that his birthday coincided with the
date (April 20) when Cromwell closed Parliament.
2. Cf. Hitler's Leitmotiv of 1930 "Heads will roll".
-SEGftET - .
son's French books and music burnt. When the Prinoe protested
his father struck him in the face. Hitler sat enthralled.
Dr. Sedgwick saw him nod vigorously when the Prinoe
was brought back to his father after trying to escape his
Spartan life as a Prussian soldier by absconding to England.
The Prince's friend and abettor in this planned"- flight, Herr
i
von Katte, was taken prisoner. The king order*- both of them
tried before a military tribunal for high treason.. The
tribunal decides that they shall both be imprisoned.
The king enters the court room, reads the verdict
aloud and says "Not good I " He then tears up the parchment
and orders the court to condemn them to death. "Better that
they die than that justice should fail." The young Prinoe is
finally condemned to ohly two years in a fortress while Katte
■ ' r
is beheaded.
r
In the big scene the scaffold is shown with the block
the executioner, and the axe. Soldiers form a hollow square
around it. Katte mounts the soaffold and the camera swings
up to a window where the Prince, who has been ordered by his
father to witness the execution, is standing. The two friends
exchange glances. The drums roll. The young Prince collapses.
When Dr. Sedgwick and Hitler left the theatre,
Hitler whistled the theneof the Frederick - March. He
-mm-
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 48 -
said that Albert Steinrueck (died 1929) nad played the part
of tho father superbly. "It la irapoaing to think that old
King would have beheaded his own son to enforce discipline.
That is how all German youth will have to be brought up
some day. That is the way German Justice should be handled.
Either acquittal or beheading."
i
Here again is the same leitmotiv: Itteads will roll."
Another angle of the life of Frederick the Great
which interested Hitler at the time was Frederick's tolerance
in religious matters. It cannot be emphasized enough that
prior to his imprisonment- in Landsberg Hitler was quite willing
to copy Frederick's tolerant policy toward the Church, based
on his famous phrase: "Let everyone travel to Heaven in his
own fashion,"
Hitler and Blueoher .- Bluecher has always been a sourc
of imspiratioh to Hitler. Bluecher was and remains the symbol
of German Faith and Courage. The man is expressed in one word
"Vorwaerts" (Onwards). Marshal Vorwaerts as Bluecher was called
by the people, must be reagrded as the driving foroe against
Napoleon. In 1923 when Dr. Sedgwick had played for almost
two hours at a stretch to Hitler he suddenly said "Why don't
you get somebody to write a film on Blueoher, Marshal Vorwaerts?
He is one of the greatest Germans who has ever lived and more
- 49 -
Important to us today than Rembrandt or Goethe. Germans above
all must bo brought up to bo oouragoous. It was Blueoher's
courage and his technique of perpetual attack which made
Napoleon lose his nerve at Leipzig and Waterloo, It -was the
courage of that old man which turned the battle of Waterloo
into a catastrophe." *
Hitler and Napoleon.- In 1923 Hitler*s admiration.
for Napoleon was an outstanding feature. This admiration
sprang from several causes; his admiration for Napoleon as
a man and as a German, and his admiration for Mussolini's
suocess typifying a Bonaparte reincarnated. By 1932 Hitler's
admiration for Napoleon had eclipsed his admiration of
Frederick the Great because the latter typifies the end of
a period while the former, the dominator of the revolutionary
r
French and world chaos, seemed to offer an inspiring example
r
in' an analogous fight against Bolshevism.
Hitlor is more interested in Napoleon than by any
other figure in European history. He is unwilling to admit
this openly because it would not be good propaganda. The
fact remains that Hitler has taken more leaves out of
Napoj|eon f s book than from anywhere else. It is Napoleon the
Jacobin and friend of the younger Robespierre, Napoleon
the oonspirator, Napoleon the soldier, the propagandist, the
coiner of phrases, the tyrant, the Imperator that interest
Hitler.
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REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Napoleon got France to follow him because he was
an example and a leader. Napoleon realized that in order
to become the leader .of the Prenoh nation he had to stick
to a leader-pattern and had in turn to demand that his
followers imitate his thoughts and actions. He thus created
around him an ever-widening circle of people who fashioned
i
themselves after him. In this way Napoleon became France
and France Napoleon. Hitler has quite obviously taken note
of this method. If Hitler is Germany, end if Hitler is
Europe it is because the people who he gets to follow him
are or have become little Hitlers.
Other features oulled from the Napoleonic propa-
ganda are Hitler's anti-Conservative, anti-Capitalistic and
anti-Bourgeois attitude. Thus Hitler like Napoleon will ai-
r-
ways come out for the have-nots, for living labor as
r
opposed to dead capital, and for those who have their fortunes
to make. Like Napoleon Hitler comes out for youth, for the
element which being on the make is aggressive, bold, and
self-reliant. Like Napoleon Hitler will plead the cause
of an inoreased birth rate. On the other hand Hitler follows
Napoleon in his dislike for an old age point of view, his
dislike of the rich, cultured class, because this olass,
having something to lose, is timid and selfish, illiberal,
— SEGRET-
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
sceptic, exclusive, reserved and immovable. Furthermore,
this established class is not a growing thing, but on the
contrary is diminishing in numbers.
Heinrich Heine in talking of Napoleon used the
phrase "Heroic Materialism**. Both Napoleon and Hitler
are mechanical-minded men, who subordinate all intellectual
and spiritual forces to means of material success. Both
of them realized that to be successful and powerful as a
nation it is necessary to raise the standard of living of
the masses. Both are thoroughly modern and mechanistic, with
the one difference that Napoleon refused Robert Fulton's
scheme of the steamboat, while Hitler in Napoleon* s place
would have probably asked some Goering for advice before,
so doing.
r
Then there is the newspaper-consciousness of both
Hitler and Napoleon. Monopolizing the attention^of their
contemporaries by adapting themselves to the mind of the
masses . around them, both not merely became representatives
but actually monopolizers and usurpers of other minds. Both
felt themselves not only entitled to do this. They con-
sidered this usurpation and plagiarism of other minds
as their duty and normal function, bu arguing that these
thoughts, which their presence and personality inspired,
were as much their own as if they had said them. In fact
they argued that thin adoption of other people's brain
constituted ao to speak an act of final eternal -adoption.
Their idea was that in repeating. a thought of others was a
process of rebirth. 1
In faot men of Napoleon's and Hitler's stamp almost
ceast to h;.ve either private speech or opinion. They are so
largely crowd-receptive and are so placed, that they oome
to be the pooling reservoir for all contemporary intelligence
information, malinformation, wit, prejudice and power. They
listen and are listened to as the media of all wave-lengths
of their day. Every sentence spoken by them is voicing
merely what every man woman and child of the nation feels
that they always felt before - but merely did nop know how
to express.
Hitler and Napoleon, being mediums of the innermost
libido patterns of the principal sections of the nation,
these great men are like avalanches. They devour everything
in their path. Great men set their stamp on the times. So
it happens that everything successful, memorable, witty and
beautiful is credited to them and hitched onto their names.
~$E6ftE-F —
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
_„_ ^seRa —
Bonaparte and Hitler at the height of their lives
i
were the idols of common men (Babbitt type) because they have
in a transcendant degree the qualities and powers of oommon
men. Just as common men aim only at power and-wealth so
Bonaparte and Hitler wrought in oommon with that great
olass they represented, for power and wealth -••and did so -
to the secret delight of the common men of their time, without
any soruples as to the means.
There is always a certain coquetterie in his voice
when Hitler is speaking of his foreign aims and he would end
his lengthy expose with the confession of his intention to
realize his program without any regard to legal obligations.
The saoro-egoismo of Mussolini taken from Napoleon* s
notebook became a part of Hitler's vade-mecum. ^"If a thing
is good for the Party a crime is no crime. If £t is good
for Germany a crime is not crime." The common man hears this
and thinks: "Is it not delightful to know, that while we
poor suckers have to live acoording to the statutes, our
leaders be it Napoleon, Mussolini or Hitler can infringe on
the Law."
It has been shown above how in consequence of the
analogous roles of the French Revolution of 1789 and the
Russian Revolution of 1917 the Napoleon type as conqueror of
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 54 -
revolutions has been reincarnated in Benito Mussolini and
Adolf Hitler und how Napoleonic phrases, methods and mea-
sures have filtered through Mussolini to Hitler.
It must not be forgotten that sinoe Marshal Hinden-
burg's death in 1934 Hitler has surpassed his former master
Mussolini by 'beooming himself a de 'facto Empero^ , by playing
to an end the role of oonfiscator of liberties.'" Thus the year
1804 when Bonaparte made himself 3mperor and midsummer 1934
correspond to each other. Both these years brought the
confiscation of all powers of State, of all liberties of
the individual. In both of these years there was noone to
resist; it was as though all other solutions had been tried
in vaini
However, just as Mussolini was surpassed, so was
Napoleon in his turn. The reason is this that while Napoleon
r
only had his. army to rely upon, Hitler in addition to that
is in full control of a nation-wide Gestapolitan network
and Party bureaucracy. When Napoleon said "Moral sentiments
are for women and little ohildren - and ideologists" he yet
"was far from "toeing a 100$ dictator. Hitler has gone further
than Napoleon. He has refused to make a concordat with the
Churches or rather he has made it and refused to fulfill it.
He has declared a total noral moratorium. If Hitler is re-
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 55 - §eeftt —
minded that such a course constitutes a violation of solemnly
given promises and of the Party program of 1923 he answers
in almost Naponeonic phraseology: "Y*e must not be weak and
literary. We must act with solidity and precision which we
owe to our holy national mission. I must follow my star."
This frequent favorite allusion to his star ("Mein Stern"),
to my destiny ("Moin Schicksal") and to Providence ("Die
Vorsehung") are anything else but purely rhetorical Imitations
of the Napoleonic jargon. They are a thing In which Hitler
believes profoundly or rather a thing in which hehas accustomed
himself to believe.
"But," Dr. Sedgwick asked him in 1923: "What will
you do, Herr Hitler, if something should happen which would
prevent you from fulfilling your duties as Fuehrer. After
all you could fall sick...." Hitler retorted: "If that
r
should be the case or If I should die It would only be a
sign that my star has run its course and my mission Is ful-
filled."
A striking parallel and one whioh became dearer and
clearer with every year is Hitler* s distrust and contempt for
so-called "born kings". Napoleon - used to refer to them as
the "hereditary asses," when he spoke for example about the
Bourbons. Y/ith Hitler who started when young with a solid
i
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
-^•SSHeri — —
contempt for the Hapsburgs things have run a similar course.
In the degree of his rising powers the Witt els bachs , the V.'ettins
and the Hohenzollerns followed suit. "There is not one among
them who could have been his own ancestor," Hitler says occ-
asionally, using almost the identical phrase of Napoleon.
Today the return of the Monarchy is in Germany an almost dead
i
issue - that is as long as Hitler lives. His successor (Goe-
ring?) might possibly feel himself obliged to restitute the
Hollenzollerns. However, whether he would follow the direct
line of descendance appears somewhat doubtful in Dr. Sedgwick's
excellent memory there was a strong tendency as far back as
1934 to choose possibly somebody from a collateral side, a
descendant of the Kaiser's only daughter, the Duchess of
Braunschweig.
Both Napoleon and Hitler never cease to fear legi-
timate monarchists. That is why both of them so' frequently
refer to the fatft they are flesh and creatures of the masses -
that they are in fact identioal with the broad masses of the
people. Both of them rose with the rabble and will fall with
the rabble, because they are usurpers. To stay on top both of
them use identical levers - interest and fear. In pursuing
this course there is a further similarity. It is well-known
that Napoleon considered himself the - "flagellum Dei.' ** .' That
Hitler as early as the summer of 1923 began to talk of himself
as the scourging Messiah of this world has already been ind-
icated previously.
beefier-
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 57 -
SPEECH^MAKIIIG TECHNIQUE
Preparation of Speech .- Time und time again Dr. Sedg-
wiok has been asked how Hitler makes his speeches. Almost
everyone he has talked to seems to have the idea that others
write all his books Buch as " Mein Kampf ". This is absolutely-
wrong.
The fact is that Hitler suffers mono in the room when
he is working over a speech. In olden times (1922 and 1923) Hit-
ler did not dictate his speeches as he does today. It took him
about four to six hours to make his plan on large foolsoap sheet:
about ten or twelve in number. On each page were only a few
words to be used as a cue. Hot more than, fifteen or twenty word*
at the most. Hitler knew too well the danger of too copious
notes for free delivery.
While Hitler undoubtedly used to read many books, he
rarely, if ever consulted them when laying out a ispeech. Often
Dr. Sedgwick visited him when he was at work on a speech to de-
liver him some speoial message. In the streets outside the red
billboards would be covered with Hitler's giant posters ann-
ouncing the meeting. He would be found in his room as usual
wearing a simple brown jersey and thick-soled gray felt slip-
pers. No book's i.- were on the table, no papers on the desk.
Once in 1923 Hitler made an exception tq this rule.
It was in the middle of July and he was to address orowds of
visiting German "Turners", who had come from all over Germany,
to attend the "Deutscher Turnertag" in Munich. Hitler wanted
to make a special effort- He obtained a thick volume of von
Clausewitz and fell so in love v/ith it that he took the book
along to the Circus Krone. It was a disastrously hot day. .
The cirous was stifling, like an overheated animal house in a
zoo. In the middle of the speech when Hitler was just engrossed
in exposing the importance of National enthusiasm and the fanat-
ical zest of a people for an army, he pulled out his volume or
von Clausewitz and began to read one - two - three- four pages.
It almost seemed as though he had forgotten the audience which
became more and more restive. When Hitler returned again to
his OY/n speech the entire contact had to be reestablished anew.
Realizing this Hitler immediately started the rhapsodic move-
ment and saved the day by a brilliant ten minute finale. Since
the experience Hitler has never taken a book with ^him on the
platform. ■
When the hour of the meeting approaches, he walks up
and down the room as though rehearsing in his mind the various
phases of his argument. During this time telephone calls come
pouring in. It was often Christian Weber, Max iuaann or Hermann
E8ser, who would tell Hitler how things were going In the hall.
Hitler* s typical question on the telephone would be: "Are there
many people coming? What is the general mood? ("Wie 1st die
Stimmung?"). Will there be any opposition?".
Then flitler would five directions concerning the handl-
ing of the meeting while they were waiting for him. Then he
would hang up the telephone and resume his walk, sometimes
listening in an absent-minded way to some conversation- in the
room. Then the telephone would ring again only to repeat a
similar conversation to the above. Half an hoim after the open-
i
ing of the meeting Hitler would ask for his overcoat, whip and
hat and go out to his car preceded by his bodyguard and chauffeur
Entranoe .- Even if Hitler wears civilian clothes, his
appearance has a military bearing. He has nothing of the- over-
familiar style of certain demagogues. He .takes no notice of
anyone on the way in as he strides throught the crowd to the
podium. He keeps his eyes on the S.S. and S.A. formations with
the flags. The sole exceptions to' this since 1932 are when some
child is shoved in his way to hand him a bouquet of flowers. He
will take the flowers with the left hand and pat £he child on the
cheeks. The whole thing takes him only a few seconds. Then he
passes the bouquet to Schaub or Brueckner and passes on.
Interruptions .- Any interruption on the way in or. on
the way out which does not involve mother and child is apt ot
arouse Hitler's ire. Woe to the unlucky S.S. Commander, who
is responsible for such a leakage. Dr. Sedgwick remembers that
in 1932 near Eoenigsberg Hitler was on his way out of a stadium. ...
-SEGftET —
. 6o - -SESR-a-—
*
and a middle-aged hysterical woman suddenly blocked his way,
knelt down before him and tried to thrust Into his hand a
scroll of revelations she olaimed to have received from the
other world. Hitler shouted at Brueokner In a furious way:
"Get this crazy woman out of the way". Hitler was in a bad
temper the whole of that evening.
Speech .- Quite often somebody makes a speech to fill
in the time until. Hitler arrives. Hitler does not care who
talks before, him but he absolutely refuses to have anybody talk
after him. There is always inspiring martial music both before
and after his speeches.
When Hitler stepped forward he used to plaoe his sheet
of notes on a table at his left and after he looked at them he
would lay them over on. a table on his right . Each page used to
take him from ten to fifteen minutes. When he had finished he
slowly plaoed it on the other table, took a new £.eaf and started
on. His usual time for a speech was from two to two and a half
hours, even three hours was not unusual. That was before his
throat trouble started and, he used even to drink beer from a
mug from time to "time, which in Munich was always the signal
for some special applause.
Posture .- Dr. Sedgwick who has sat behind Hitler Upon
innumerable occasions watching him closely and only a few feet
away from him, observed that he starts in a position of military
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 61 -
attention. Thia posture ia maintuinod some fifteen - twenty -
twenty-five minutes as the case may be. All this time the
heels of his boots remain firmly together, There is not a
second of relaxation. The whole figure is one of absolute
firmness, including shoulders and head. Hitler* s hands are
clasped behind his back and the arms are stretched while he
i
draws a caustic and chastising exposition of the. past and
present. It is the style he probably aoquired:.: in 1919 and
following years, when serving as a non-commissioned instructor
at the Munich barracks.
It is a period of discipline for himself and the
audience and corresponds in many ways to the tradition among
concert pianists to open their programs with a few selections
from Bach. After twenty minutes out comes the foot for the first
time and gestures follow with the hands. From then on things
begin to liven up. Compared to a piece of music I&tler's
speeches consist two thirds of march time growing increasingly
quicker and leading into the last third which is matter of
fact with increasingly ironic sidelights. As is well-known
he suffers no Interruptions nor heckling;.
Knowing that a continuous presentation by one speaker
would be boring he impersonates in a masterful way an imaginary
Hitler often interrupting himself with a counter-argument and
then returns to his original line of thought, after he has
smothered completely this imaginary opponent. This furnishes
the audienoe with a little special drama, often interrupted by
volleys of spontaneous applause, yet Hitler does not strictly
speaking seek for applause. He seems often to be wanting only
to oonvert the people to his ideas and is resentful of any
premature noise, which interrupts him. If the applause goes on
too long in his opinion he will check it and cut it short, some-
times even at its inception, by a motion with a v trembling hand.
All enthusiasm must be saved up for the third part of
his speeoh, which he sweeps from exhortation, promise, dedica-
tion into the rhapsody finale. The tempo livens. Staccato
outbursts become .more frequent and the speech converges towards
its apotheosis. Hitler has already been shown as a Narcissus
type who regards the crowd as a substitute medium for the woman
he cannot find. Once this is understood, that speaking for him
represents the satisfaction of some depletion urge, the pheno-
" r
menon of Hitler as an orator beoomes intelligible. • With Hitler
it is a double prooess of depletion and parturition. His
arguments are the depletion element k the applause, homage and
ovation of the audienoe are the child that is born. In the
last eight to ten minutes Hitler's oratory resembles an orgasm
of words. It is almost like the throbbing fulfillments of a
love drama Liebestod .
Oratory . - It has often been said by people who read
Hitler's speeches: "Why that is old stuff, we have heard that
before," if these same critics hear him in person they would
- 63 -
say: "It is remarkable that when one henrs Hitler all seems as
though it were new and said for the first time. And yet one
knows that one has heard it before, but somehow it seems new
and has a new meaning. **
There is undoubtedly something in common between
Hitler* s speech and Wagner's music. Inf inite'fariations of
known leitmotivs repeated over and over producing a new ear
appeal.
Hitler has a quality which no German orator has
hitherto possessed. He uses the two half truths of Nationalism
and Socialism simultaneously Just as a composer will use
melody and base to produce the complete contrapuntal picture.
This gift is given to none of his rivals nor opponents. He is at
simultaneously to appeal to the ideal and mystical sphere and
r
to the concrete animal sphere.
r
The truth is that the greatness of an 'orator like
that of a poet must in the final analysis be Judged by what
he does not say and yet does not leave unsaid. This gives a
chanoe for the audience to feel the unexpressed, the inexpress-
ible, themselves. This is what Wagner in a letter to Matilda
Wesendonk has called "the art of s ounding silence".
Frau Magda Goebbels in a mixture of truth, affeota-
tion and flattery onoe said to Hitler: "You were wonderful
again yesterday. It makes me feel so ashamed of myself. I
always think that I am a National-Socialist and yet when I
-8EBRET-
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
hear- you I reel that I haven't been a National-Socialist all
this time - that I am just beginning to be one. It all seems
so hew to me, as though it were my first oonversion from my
former life."
This conversation took place at the luncheon table
in the Jleiohskanzlei in 1934. At the time Dr. "S>dgwiok took
it as a piece of .shameless and nauseating flattery, which
was swallowed avidly by Hitler. Since then Dr. Sedgwick feels
that is contains a grain of truth, if analysed in the spirit
of the letter of Wagner's quoted above.
Speaking of Hitler's technique of arguing publioly
with himself he once 3aid to Dr. Sedgwiok the following: n"We
must never forget that words and their meaning are two subtly
distinct things. The word remains the same but the meaning
r
changes. If, for instance, you repeat a word a number of times
' r
A-
the human mind refuses to reproduce the same thought picture."
The human mind indeed insists on verying that thought-
picture sometimes even to a degree of the absolute opposite.
Q,uite aside from this fact we can notice every day that familiar
words which are used in argument have almost ceased to convey
a plastic idea. There is a special type of educated German
lingo which is almost entirely made up of such words. That
type of out-of-date professorial German ( Prof es a o r en-Deut s oh )
is the cause of the daoy of bourgeois parties like the
Hugenberg Party.
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
"The crowd is not only like a woman, but v/omen con-
stitute the moat Important element in an audience. The women
usually lead, then follow the children - and at last, when I
already have won over the whole family - follow the fathers."
A speaker may never take for granted : that the audionc^
understands what he says. Like an architeot who must draw a
i
groundplan as well as an elevation, so a speeker who wants to b<
really understood by the broad masses must supplement his. state-
ment that a thing is so: and so (thesis) with a further argument
which shows in which way the thing described is not so and so
(antithesis) .
This seoond inverted and negative presentation fur- .
nishes the necessary complementary colors to the argument
picture Ho. 1. The result Is that the whole thing stands out
r
in dramatic relief. The masses grasp the idea and it has
become their own (synthesis).
Needless to say part No. 2 is the most difficult
section of a speech. If it Is done in a dry way the speech
becomes a sermon and will bore the people. It is therfore
advisable to treat this part in the form of ironical side-
lights, naively put in, almost in dialogue fashion. The effeot
on the audience Is to make them understand without effort and
the speaker can proceed with confidence to the next subject.
REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
- 66 - — ' : / ■ • ■
"Some people say that I repeat myself so often,"
said Hitler. "I tell you one oannot repeat a thing too often.
That presupposes that a speaker is really a speaker and under-
stands the art of endlessly varying the main point. In that
respect Wagner is my model. Besides people forget that even
the story of Christ, which was certainly sold to- the world
i
public, was reported by four evangelists in verjc: much the same
way. The slight difference here and there In substance and
temperamental oolorlng far from bewildering and tiring the
listener have helped to convince him."
End of Speech .- Hitler said: "To end a speech well
is the most difficult thing to accomplish; Tou must know what
you want to say, you must know what you do not want to say."
"It is always a new experiment, and one must know
exactly by feeling the reaction of the audience when the moment
has come to throw the last flaming javelin which ^ets the crowd
afire and sends it home with a leading idee buzzing in their
heads. One can see exaotly how far the audience has become
fascinated If the heads in the gallery and elsewhere move back
and forth. This is a sign that the* speaker has as yet no grip
on his audience. One sees that a lot of that is one of the
•1
reasons I oannot listen to other people speak."
T~. The only man Hitler can bear to listen to speaking is
Goebbels.
SEeRei-
Avoidance of Names of Personages .- While speaking
Hitler carefully avoids mentioning the names of personages
either dead or alive. For in3tanoe instead of saying "Bismarck
once said..." Hitler will say "The Iron Chancellor...."
Instead of saying: "This is a debt we owe to General Ludendorff,
Hitler will say: "To Germany's Great Quart erma&fcer of the World
■»
War we owe..." Schiller and Goethe are never referred to by name
but always as an unnamed great poet. The only exception he
makes to this rule is Richard Wagner.
Exit Technique .- When Hitler's speeoh has reached its
orgiastic end, the final stage which might be termed the -apo-
theosis of the meeting takes place. The band plays the national
anthem (Deutsohland ueber Alles) (National-ism) followed by the
Horst Wessel song (National-Socialism). Without waiting Hitler
salutes to the right and left and leaves during the playing.
He usually reaches his car before the singing is £ver. Whether
consciously or unconsciously done this sudden withdrawal has a
number of advantages. In addition to facilitating his exit
unmolested to his car, it prevents the exaltation of the crowd
from going to waste. It saves him from unwelcome Interviews
and leaves intaot the apotheosis picture that the public has
received from the end of his speeoh. Hitler once said to Dr.
Sedgwiok: "It is a great mistake many speakers make, to hang
around after their speech is over. It only leads to an anti-
climax and sometimes it might even happen that arguments arise
which could completely undo the hours of oratGrlal labor."
REPRODUCED ATTHE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Then turning to a comparison with the thoatro he said
"I never liked it when actors after finishing their roles took
curtain calls. It murders the illusion when a Hamlet or a
Tristan who has just died magnificently on the stage reappear
to smile and bow to the applause of the audience-. Of course.
i
the professional actors will t ell you that they^live by this
applause and the number of encores determine their standing in
their profession. Riohard Wagner was dead right when he pro-
hibited all encore curtain calls for the f estspielhaus perform-
ances in Bayreuth. It is and remains a profanation."
Hitler* s theory was that one must always have the
courage to leave any gathering as soon as- one feels that the
climax is reached; never, never wait to see what impression
has been made which is a sign of inner cowardice and lack of
confidence. *
Hitler's habit of leaving the hall abruptly during
the first moments of tbe ovation has helped to shroud him
with an almost austioal quality of unearthliness. The man
without a home, the Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin's exit in
shining armor, the untouohability of Pelleas, which transforms
the various women types in the audience into so many longing
Elsasj Sentas and Melisandes.
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